the_mysterious_mr_enterfandomcom-20200214-history
Weirdness....
Alright, awhile back I did a review on an absolutely terrible book entitled "1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die," a book that was riddled with errors. Table of contents directions lead to wrong pages. Some titles in the table of contents used one regional name, while the actual entry used a different regional name (Freak Out/Stretch Panic). There were also typos and spelling errors. Sometimes games like H.E.R.O. and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. would be at the top of their letter section, and sometimes they would be where they would if they didn't have any periods. Not to mention that they didn't know how to alphabetize at all. This book is probably the only place in the world where Super Mario Bros. comes in between Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3. And that's in the table of contents. Throughout the book, there are plenty of errors. Each entry gives us a blurb where the editor didn't check for grammar and someone thought that Brewster (from Animal Crossing) was an owl. Not only that, but some of these blurbs go on to tell why some of these entries shouldn't be in the book. The entry to Galaga begins like this "Although thought of as a classic of the early arcade era, Galaga is essentially little more than a space invaders clone." This is supposed to make the argument that Galaga is a game you must play before you die. Along with that, you get the original release year, which is frequently wrong, sometimes up to three years. I get it when you don't know if a game like Tempest came out in '80 or '81, since sources are mixed on that. But how do you think that Super Mario Bros. 3 came out in 1990? (It was '88.) Or how 1942 came out in '87? (It was '84). You also get the developer, which is frequently wrong. On top of that, you get the genre, which is confusing. Gradius, Gears of War, and Contra III are all "shoot 'em ups," there are single entry genres, like "hacking simulations" and for some reason Gary's Mod is an RPG. And there's the platform. If the game can be found on more than 2 platforms, it's considered "various" (you know, because there are only two consoles per generation). That's not even going on about the crap they did include (EyePet, see Projared's Playstation Move review; Facade; BioShock 2; 4 Guitar Heroes; 3 Rock Bands; and every Mario Kart up to Wii, even Super Circuit) instead of things they didn't (Spyro, Crash, Conker, Rayman, Kirby, King's Quest, Phantasy Star). But I've complained about that before. And I want to complain about this again. Doing a review on DeviantArt isn't enough to sate my rage with this one. I want to make a video, but I don't have a scanner. And the book is kind of vandalized anyway. I've literally been doing personal research on each entry and writing "yes" or "no" or, in the cases of Luigi's Mansion "better sequel has been released" and correcting the misinformation. That's fine. It would be a lot more work than necessary to make the review. I don't need to put in every single entry into the review. That wouldn't be fair use anyway. So, I go looking for an ebook. I find one... on a site that's only available to UK users. Then I go to Amazon... and can't download it because I'm not a user from the UK. This is an electronic downloadable thing, and I've bought and had physical things delivered from UK, Japan, and Scandinavia. So, what the hell? More importantly, does anyone know where I can find an electronic version of this book? Maybe a PDF or something? And... is there some kind of weird legal thing I'm not aware of? Or are gigantic companies just being fucking stupid again? But seriously, I need to find an electronic version of this book. Category:Miscellaneous